We can get this out of the way right now. Marvel movies really shouldn’t be the place we should be looking for any kind of real accuracy when it comes to science. More often than not, the science is just a means to create these superpowers, and rather than focus on the actual science, the filmmakers only go as far as to make it as believable as it needs to be, so long as you don’t think about it too hard.
Case-in-point — Ant-Man’s changing density. Why is it that when he falls, he leaves a dent on the tile, but is still able to run along a pistol without weighing it down? Also, how can one go subatomic when the process used to shrink has to do with bringing the atoms closer together, rather than actually shrinking atoms?
Actually, there may be an answer to that latter question. While speaking at a press conference LRM had a chance to attend, Evangeline Lilly delved a bit into the quantum physics in the upcoming Ant-Man and the Wasp, and in her explanation, she drops some knowledge that can arguably render that “plot hole” filled.
“I actually can answer that question. Because I really love quantum physics and always did before this happened and that’s one of the reasons I was excited about this brand, was I really dig quantum physics and you know, at one point we thought the atom was the beyond all and end all; that everything ended at the atom. That was the smallest nucleus in the world. But actually we discovered that the atom is kinetic. And that atoms exist in multiple places at the same time. And that was scientifically proven and once you discover that, then you know that matter is kinetic and matter is displacing all the time and if it can be displaced, it can be warped. And so if you can… [LAUGHTER] and so… So if you can warp it then you can warp size, you can warp matter and also, can you warp time? Can you warp reality? Can you warp universes? Right?”
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So while it would seem not to make sense that condensing the space between atoms could ever lead to a person becoming subatomic, it sounds like the key lies in warping the kinetic atoms. This is obviously above my pay grade, and it still seems to be “Marvel science” in the best possible way, but it does seem to be at least a partial explanation as to why one is able to actually shrink smaller than an atom — even if you’re not actually supposedly shrinking the size of an atom.
What do you think of this explanation? Let us know your thoughts down below!